PPAC’s statewise sales series runs from FY2008-09 to FY2024-25, and it tells a sharper story than the national total: petrol demand grew more than three times faster than diesel, the diesel-to-petrol ratio collapsed from 4.6 to 2.3, the growth frontier moved east to Odisha and Chhattisgarh — and the slowest-growing fuel market in India is Delhi, which is exactly what its gas and metro build-out was meant to achieve.
Petroleum · State-level demand · Motorisation
Where India Actually Burns Its Fuel: Sixteen Years of State-Level Sales
Published · v1.0.0 · PPAC statewise POL sales workbook, FY2008-09 → FY2024-25
Twelve states burn nearly three-quarters of it
Gujarat leads; Uttar Pradesh doubled; the south’s giants grew slowest.
Exhibit 1
The twelve largest state fuel markets
All petroleum products, thousand metric tonnes. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are shown combined so the 2014 bifurcation does not masquerade as a demand collapse.
| State | FY2008-09, TMT | FY2024-25, TMT | Share of India, % | Growth, % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gujarat | 15,743 | 26,130 | 10.9 | +66 |
| Maharashtra | 15,820 | 23,088 | 9.6 | +46 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 10,749 | 21,748 | 9.1 | +102 |
| Karnataka | 6,986 | 15,962 | 6.7 | +128 |
| Andhra Pradesh + Telangana | 9,390 | 15,902 | 6.6 | +69 |
| Tamil Nadu | 10,855 | 15,879 | 6.6 | +46 |
| Rajasthan | 7,890 | 11,752 | 4.9 | +49 |
| Haryana | 6,300 | 10,770 | 4.5 | +71 |
| West Bengal | 5,248 | 10,152 | 4.2 | +93 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 4,429 | 9,290 | 3.9 | +110 |
| Odisha | 2,653 | 7,457 | 3.1 | +181 |
| Kerala | 4,472 | 6,940 | 2.9 | +55 |
| Twelve-state share | — | — | 73.1 | — |
| All India | 133,599 | 239,472 | 100 | +79 |
PPAC, Statewise Sales of Petroleum Products workbook, all-products sheet, FY2008-09 and FY2024-25. These are sales in a state, not consumption by its residents — border districts buy where fuel is cheaper, so a state’s VAT rate leaks demand across its boundary; PPAC titles the series accordingly.
Two things stand out. Gujarat is India’s largest fuel market, ahead of the considerably more populous Maharashtra — industrial and freight intensity, not headcount. And the old giants grew slowest: Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu at +46% against a national +79%, while Uttar Pradesh doubled and Karnataka grew +128%.
The composition flipped: India’s fuel demand is passenger-ising
Diesel still dominates, but every increment leans petrol.
Exhibit 2
Petrol vs diesel, nationally and in the big states
Growth FY2008-09 → FY2024-25 and the current diesel-to-petrol sales ratio.
| Market | Petrol growth, % | Diesel growth, % | Diesel÷petrol now |
|---|---|---|---|
| All India | +255 | +77 | 2.3 |
| Uttar Pradesh | +396 | +102 | 2.2 |
| West Bengal | +348 | +66 | 2.6 |
| Madhya Pradesh | +316 | +112 | 2.2 |
| Andhra Pradesh + Telangana | +303 | +36 | 2.1 |
| Karnataka | +298 | +158 | 2.7 |
| Rajasthan | +286 | +76 | 2.9 |
| Gujarat | +236 | +138 | 2.7 |
| Tamil Nadu | +236 | +38 | 1.8 |
| Haryana | +197 | +20 | 3.0 |
| Maharashtra | +176 | +88 | 2.4 |
PPAC statewise workbook, MS and HSD sheets. National petrol sales rose 11,258 → 40,004 TMT; diesel 51,710 → 91,408 TMT. The national diesel-to-petrol ratio halved from 4.6 to 2.3.
Sixteen years ago India sold 4.6 tonnes of diesel for every tonne of petrol; it now sells 2.3. The increment is two-wheelers and cars, not trucks and tractors — which is why the ethanol-blending programme (petrol-side) keeps gaining policy leverage while diesel-side interventions fade, and why the per-market playbook in the diesel-to-CNG piece matters most in the high-ratio states: Haryana at 3.0 and Rajasthan at 2.9 have the most diesel per litre of petrol left to convert.
The frontier moved east; the plateau is scattered across the rest of the map
Odisha nearly tripled. Delhi barely grew — on purpose.
Exhibit 3
Fastest and slowest fuel markets, FY2008-09 → FY2024-25
States above 2,000 TMT of current sales.
| Fastest | Growth, % | Slowest | Growth, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odisha | +181 | Delhi | +22 |
| Chhattisgarh | +143 | Punjab | +23 |
| Karnataka | +128 | Maharashtra | +46 |
| Jharkhand | +124 | Tamil Nadu | +46 |
| Assam | +120 | Rajasthan | +49 |
PPAC statewise workbook, all-products sheets. The fastest column is dominated by the eastern mineral belt — Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand — plus Assam: late motorisation compounding on top of mining and industrial freight.
Delhi is the finding hiding in the slow column. The capital’s fuel sales grew 22% in sixteen years — a period in which its vehicle stock multiplied. The explanation is substitution, not stagnation: Delhi runs India’s densest gas transport network — 458 CNG station clusters and 19.6 lakh piped-gas connections on PNGRB’s May 2026 count — a metro carrying millions of trips, and the country’s most aggressive vehicle-age rules. Delhi is what the CGD takeover of India’s gas demand looks like from the petrol pump’s side of the ledger. Punjab’s +23% is the other kind of plateau — an agrarian, already-motorised economy whose diesel base stopped growing.
Sources. All state and national figures — PPAC, Statewise Sales of Petroleum Products workbook (all-products, MS and HSD sheets), FY2008-09 → FY2024-25, downloaded from ppac.gov.in and read 8 August 2026; values in thousand metric tonnes as published, growth and share computations by the author. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are combined throughout so the June 2014 bifurcation is not misread as a demand shift. Delhi’s gas-infrastructure counts (CNG stations and domestic PNG connections, as on 31.05.2026, source PNGRB) — PPAC, Snapshot of India’s Oil & Gas Data, July-26 edition, Table 22. The series measures sales within a state, which PPAC distinguishes from consumption by its residents; cross-border purchasing driven by VAT differentials is acknowledged in the text and not adjusted for.
What would fix this
- PPAC should publish annual petrol and diesel sales for districts along state borders, so the cross-border buying driven by VAT differences, such as Haryana–Delhi and Puducherry–Tamil Nadu, can be measured rather than acknowledged and left unquantified.
- PPAC should publish a back-cast of its statewise sales series splitting Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the years before 2014, so the two states’ sixteen-year trends can be read separately instead of only as a combined figure.
- PPAC should run and publish a periodic state-wise end-use survey of petrol and diesel by vehicle segment and sector, so the shift from 4.6 to 2.3 tonnes of diesel per tonne of petrol can be attributed to two-wheelers, cars, trucks or tractors with data.
- PPAC should add a per-capita column to its statewise sales workbook using one stated set of official population projections, so readers can compare states per head without mixing census vintages across the 2014 bifurcation.
These are proposals from this blog, not recommendations any agency has adopted.
About this article: Researched, written and edited by Umashankar Triplicane Dwarakanathan, with AI research assistance; every figure is meant to trace to the primary source cited. See the Editorial Policy for how sourcing, AI use and corrections work.
